Available at RPGNow.com

The Call to Arms line from Crafty Games delivers single player character types. The three I’ll look at today are the Gallant, Infernalist, and Monster Slayer (a good mix to say the least). Each of these PDFs are about six pages long, but only have three pages of usable material.

Pages one and two constitute the cover art and credits. Page six has the mandatory legalese. The question now becomes this: are three pages worth $1.75? Let’s find out!

There isn’t much to say about the layout because I’ve already bragged on it with the corebook (Fantasy Craft Core Book Review). The fonts and borders are the same as the corebook, which worked well for me. These fall seamlessly in line.

The cover art across the three booklets comes from Ben McSweeny and Octographics. Of these three, the Infernalist’s cover art is probably the best because it has the most going on with it. Here we have the Infernalist, his demonic aura (or something sinister), and then a pesky little imp ripping a wing off of Tinkerbelle. The other two covers have great artwork, but just don’t have as much going on as this one does. The cartoon style returns for these PDFs and I’m still a fan of it. Maybe it’s a fond reflection of the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.

The writing for each of the PDFs is straightforward character dimensions like you’d find in the Fantasy Craft corebook. Each character gets an introduction, some suggestions for an angle to include the character into a party, Class features and abilities, how to build the character, how to play the character, and nifty little things they can do that few other types can (AKA why you’d buy these PDFs in the first place).

Like I’ve said before, I’m not a huge fantasy fan, but the offerings for this system continue to pull me into rethinking my loyalties. The art direction continues to be great and the writing, while crunchy, won’t break your mind teeth. My scores for these PDFs, which you should buy if you’re playing this or a similar system, are:

Layout: Five out of Five Dice (I just like the look of these books)
Artwork: Four out of Five Dice (Excellent considering it’s a six page offering)
Writing: Four out of Five Dice (It does what it needs to)
Overall: Four out of Five Dice (good for players and game masters)

I would like to thank Crafty Games for my free review copy of the Call to Arms bundle.

Review by Todd Cash

Tags | d20, dark-fantasy